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Gorillaz
For the band's "fictional history" see Gorillaz Backstory Gorillaz are a virtual band, composed of four fictional animated band members: 2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel. The band was created by Damon Albarn from the Britpop band Blur, and Jamie Hewlett, the co-creator of the comic book Tank Girl. Their style is broadly 'alternative', but with an unusually large number of other influences. Unlike other fictional bands whose music has had real-life success, they are neither a parody of a particular genre (Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind) nor marketed to young children (The Archies), and their actual musical output is far more of an attraction to most of their fans than the novelty of their supposed existence as cartoon characters. The band's first album, 2001's Gorillaz, sold over 3 million copies and earned them an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the Most Successful Virtual Band.1 Their second studio album, Demon Days, was released in 2005 and included the hit singles "Feel Good Inc.", "Dare", "Dirty Harry" and "El Mañana/Kids With Guns." Demon Days went Double Platinum in the U.S., Triple Platinum in the U.K., and earned 5 Grammy award nominations for 2005. The people behind Gorillaz, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, formed in April 1998. They originally identified themselves under the name "Gorilla," and the first song they recorded was "Ghost Train" (1999), later released as a B-side on their single "Rock the House" and "G-Sides". Phase One: Celebrity Take Down The band's first release was the EP Tomorrow Comes Today, released in 2000. It was very well received in the UK underground music scene and generated a lot of word-of-mouth advertising, as well as a large shroud of mystery over who was behind Gorillaz and what could be expected from the band in the months to come. Promo outlets circulated a promotional booklet to promote the fictional backstory behind the cartoon band. The band's official website, www.gorillaz.com, was a virtual representation of Kong Studios, the band's fictional studio and home. Inside, you could browse through each member's bedroom, their recording environment and even the hallways and bathrooms. Each room also had bonus surprises and games to play: for example, the lobby had a remix machine, the cafeteria contained the message board on the wall and Murdoc's Winnebago (accessible only by using the enhanced section of the Gorillaz album) contained a voodoo doll of 2D. Each member also had his or her own computer which contained pictures, samples used in various Gorillaz songs, their favorite websites and their e-mail inboxes. Because of the nature of the site, an official fansite, fans.gorillaz.com, was created to hold the standard band website information, including news, a discography and the band's touring schedules. The band's first single, "Clint Eastwood", was released on March 5, 2001. It became a smash hit and put Gorillaz into the global spotlight. Due to this, the fictional band members' Hotmail accounts were abandoned (and later hacked) and the inboxes on the site were never updated. Later that same month, their first full-length album, the self-titled Gorillaz was released, producing four singles: "Clint Eastwood", "19-2000", "Tomorrow Comes Today", and "Rock the House". Each of the singles' videos contained humorous and often ridiculous storylines and imagery, though "Clint Eastwood" and "19-2000" were the only singles to break through the American music scene. "19-2000" became popular after being featured in both an Icebreakers commercial, as well as in EA Sports' FIFA 2001. Also the trumpets from the song "Rock the House" can be heard in various MTV shows. The video for "Tomorrow Comes Today" was only broadcast once in the US on Toonami as a "Midnight Run" special where they played animated music videos from Gorillaz, Daft Punk, and Kenna. Around this time, a half-hour TV mockumentary entitled "Charts Of Darkness" was released. It follows Channel 4 news reporter Krishnan Guru-Murthy attempting to track down Albarn and Hewlett after they were placed in an insane asylum. The special also interviews Rachel Stevens of S Club 7 fame and a few of the band's voice talents, who had been given roles to play. The end of the year brought the song "911", a collaboration between the Gorillaz and rap artists D12 (without Eminem) and Terry Hall about the September 11, 2001 attacks. Meanwhile "G-Sides", a compilation of the B-sides from the first three singles was released in Japan and quickly followed with international releases in early 2002. The new year also saw a complicated performance at the 2002 Brit Awards, featuring the band in 3D animation, weaving in and out of each other on four large screens along with rap accompaniment by Phi Life Cypher. Finally, "Laika Come Home", a dub remix album, containing most of the tracks from "Gorillaz" reworked by Spacemonkeyz, was released in June 2002. The single to follow, "Lil' Dub Chefin'", contained an original track by the Spacemonkeyz titled "Spacemonkeyz Theme". Phase One Point Five In November 2002, a DVD titled Phase One: Celebrity Take Down was released. The DVD contains all five videos (including the abandoned video for "5/4"), the "Charts Of Darkness" documentary, the five Gorilla Bites (short vignettes), a tour of the website by the MEL 9000 server and much more. The DVD's menu was designed much like the band's website and depicts an abandoned Kong Studios. Along with the November 2002 release of the DVD Phase One: Celebrity Take Down, the band's website closed down almost completely. The fictional Kong Studios was no longer accessible. Instead, visitors could only enter a police portacabin, where the message board and chats were still accessible. From there, a small robot called G.R.3.G. could be used to explore the abandoned Kong Studios in a 3-D shockwave environment, though doing so would only grant access to a few games. The Abandoned Gorillaz Site Rumors were going around this time that the Gorillaz team were busy preparing a film, but an EMI interview later revealed that plans for the film were abandoned. In an interview with Haruka Kuroda (the voice of Noodle), Kuroda stated that Jamie Hewlett rejected many scripts before giving up on the movie. Phase Two: Demon Days/Slowboat To Hades On December 8, 2004, the website reopened with an exclusive video entitled "Rock It" and the announcement of a new album on the way, which would be produced by Danger Mouse and contain a guest appearance by De La Soul. A talent contest entitled Search For A Star was also announced, allowing fans to send in a minute-long clip of video or audio or an image file. The prize included collaborating with the band by working with them to create the music and video for "El Mañana", the fourth single for the new album, although it has been announced that it will be a double-A side with 'Kids With Guns' as well as getting their own virtual room on the newly rebuilt Kong Studios website. A second promotional booklet was issued, recapping the previously issued booklet, as well as detailing the failed movie production in Hollywood and the breakup and reforming of Gorillaz. A culture jamming project named Reject False Icons was formed criticizing modern pop figures. The new album was first reported to be released in March 2005, but was later changed to May of the same year. The name of the album was originally reported to be We Are Happy Landfill, but was later changed to Demon Days. The first release of the album was a white label 12" promotional single of the song "Dirty Harry" featuring Bootie Brown and the Children's Choir San Fernandez. "Dirty Harry" was ineligible for the charts due to its status as a promotional single. The first proper single from the album was "Feel Good Inc.", released as an EP in Japan and as a CD single in Europe and Australia. The single entered the UK Singles Chart at #22, several weeks before the CD single was released. This happened because the single was released as a 7" vinyl in April, and new charts regulations included sales at online music stores, where the song had been available since March 22. "Feel Good Inc." managed to reach #2 in the UK Singles Chart the week it was released, being the band's highest ever positioned single up to that point in time. The single stayed in the top ten for eight consecutive weeks. In the United States, it peaked at #14. The song would also garner a Record of the Year nomination at the 2006 Grammy Awards. The album, Demon Days, was #1 in the Album Charts on its first week, but fell as low as #29 in just seven weeks. However, as the music video for the second single "DARE" started getting played on MTV and other music channels, Demon Days rose up to the top 10 again. "DARE" was released on August 29, 2005 in the UK, where it debuted at #1. A Japanese EP followed September 7. "DARE" eventually reached #87 in the United States, also becoming a Top 10 hit on the Modern Rock listings. The third single off Demon Days was "Dirty Harry", which had already been released as a promotional single earlier that year. It was released in the UK on November 21, 2005. On its first week, it charted at #6. The release of the single raised the album once again back up to the top 10. On 6 November 2005, Gorillaz-Unofficial 1 announced Jamie Hewlett had revealed that the song "El Mañana" would be the fourth single from Demon Days, but it has been confirmed that it will be a double A-side with "Kids With Guns" , to have a UK release on 10 April 2006. link On December 18, Demon Days went triple platinum in the UK and would end up racking up over a million copies sold in the UK by the end of the year, making it the 5th best selling album of 2005 there. Demon Days has also gone double platinum in the US and has sold over 6 million copies worldwide. In 2007 and 2008, Gorillaz will go on a holographic world tour. The cartoon members will be shown as holograms on stage using Pepper's ghost technology, giving them a life-like appearance on stage. Damon Albarn will not be present for the tour, as they will be pre-recorded. A prototype version of the holograms was used at the 2005 MTV EMA Awards and again at the 2006 Grammy Awards with Madonna, where the band played a pre-recorded version of "Feel Good Inc." External links * Gorillaz.com (Official website) * Gorillaz-Unofficial (The most comprehensive Gorillaz fansite. Obviously unofficial.) * Reject False Icons (Official website) * MySpace.com/Gorillaz (Official MySpace Profile) * Fans.Gorillaz.com (Official fansite. Not nearly as helpul as G-U.) * GorillazForum.com (Fan Forum) * Official Gorillaz Figures by Kidrobot * Mr.Goodliving.com (A developer of the Gorillaz GES mobile phone game)